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Let's concentrate on the things you do have control over.

More people have been persecuted, hounded, ruined, tortured, burned, murdered, and just exterminated en-masse because of a book called the Bible than any other document in human history including Mein Kampf and Das Capital put together.

Just sayin' .

As long as your meaning is, "They were persecuted for believing in Judaism or Christianity," or for owning a Torah or Bible, very possibly.

Beginnings of Christian Martyrdom

In their very deaths they were made the subjects of sport: for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights. Nero offered his own garden players for the spectacle, and exhibited a Circensian game, indiscriminately mingling with the common people in the dress of a charioteer, or else standing in his chariot. For this cause a feeling of compassion arose towards the sufferers, though guilty and deserving of exemplary capital punishment, because they seemed not to be cut off for the public good, but were victims of the ferocity of one man."

WHEN EUROPEANS WERE SLAVES

A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 – a far greater number than had ever been estimated before.

League of Militant Atheists
North Korea Ranked No. 1 for Christian Persecution
Persecuted and forgotten: Egypt's Christians
A Global Slaughter of Christians, but America’s Churches Stay Silent
Christian Persecution in China Despite Supposed Religious 'Freedom'
The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity

UNDERSTANDING ANTI-SEMITISM AND ITS HISTORY

The list is obviously much longer.

Since someone is practically certain to object along two lines, lets dispose of them now.

Yes, the Spanish Inquisition was terrible, it was also limited in scope.
The Crusades were a long delayed response to Muslim invasion of the Holy Land.

Take a look at the Navy SEALS . . . the best fighting force in the world . . . but the US Army command does not send them off everywhere at a whim.

The Joint Special Operations Command has grown enormously during the Global War on Terror.
There's currently ~20,000 total, with 13,000 of them deployed overseas, and ~9,000 of those in Afghanistan/Iraq (as of 2010).
Keep in mind that most of the Special Operators are guys with guns, support is provided through the CIA & other branches of the military.
About the only non-trigger pullers they have are their specially trained pilots.

If the Navy SEALS came under the command of the NSA, the NSA would deploy the SEALS everywhere to shoot up everyone. And instruct them to search through the dead bodies, to see if any of the dead were, in fact, terrorists.

That's actually exactly what the Special Forces are regularly sent in to do.
Here's a random article that mentions the Seals shooting up a convoy from their helicopter, then landing to take DNA samples.
They do a lot more of that than they used to, since drone strikes don't always leave much in the way of faces or dental records.

Ironic, then that it was USA Today who first broke the story about NSA warrantless wiretapping and phone metadata collection ***in 2006***

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

From that article, again, this was REPORTED BY USATODAY IN 2006:

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime

Snowden is a dupe at best...he's probably being blackmailed...but assuming the best, any way you look at the situation, he was duped by high-level criminals or foreign governments, or both, into doing this.

He's probably being blackmailed. He's not a free man in Russia. All the reports indicate he's essentially in jail when not being paraded in front of reporters.

Again...this info was reported by USA Today itself...in 2006...Snowden just gave operational details.

The "national conversation" about privacy could have happened w/o Snowden releasing that info. We US citizens could have demanded more transparency w/o Snowden releasing this info...

Because...we already knew it was happening. Snowden told us it was called 'Prism'

Even Senator Ron Wyden was sounding alarms on the Senate floor, before Snowden's document release....this from 2011: Senators Say Patriot Act Is Being Misinterpreted. Remember the PATRIOT ACT people?

One last time, as my first link shows, the USA Today reported on the NSA phone meta-data program with significant details **in 2006**

" The cable news at the time came in two flavors, CNN and CNN"

you are seriously equating fox with cnn and comparing them as two "news" outlets with opposing slants? Nice try but 15 hours of fox programming is not even news, it's editorial/opinion by fox's own addmission.

"In an interview, Mr. Clemente suggested that there was an element of âoeshoot the messengerâ in the back and forth. âoeSometimes itâ(TM)s actually helpful to have an organization or a person that you can go up against for whatever reason,â he said.
Related
Media Decoder: Axelrod and Ailes Meet, but Details Are Few
The Media Equation: The Battle Between the White House and Fox News (October 18, 2009)
Times Topics: News Corporation

Fox argues that its news hours â" 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays â" are objective. The channel has taken pains recently to highlight its news programs, including the two hours led by Shepard Smith, its chief news anchor. And its daytime newscasts draw more viewers than CNN or MSNBCâ(TM)s prime-time programs.

âoeThe average consumer certainly knows the difference between the A section of the newspaper and the editorial page,â Mr. Clemente said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/business/media/12fox.html?adxnnl=1&pagewanted=2&adxnnlx=1388448032-OBHzGQcDWN2cqwKwhPltIA

Of course we have a problem with Canada. China's been using them as a backdoor into US military secrets for years.

I don't know why they bother with the back door when they just walk right in the front: G.E. to Share Jet Technology With China in New Joint Venture. Nor does it matter that it's supposedly for civilian applications - if ever there was a dual use technology it's jet engines. There's a reason why the three major Western jet engine companies (GE, Pratt-Whitney and Rolls-Royce) make both civilian and military engines. Also, all three of those companies have been in the business since the end of WWII, which shows what a barrier to entry there is in this field. It's also no secret that China's biggest stumbling block to making "all Chinese" high performance military aircraft is the engines.

I also recommend watching Page One Inside The New-York Times it approaches several of the modern problems facing media in this Internet age.

No I clearly remember reading tons of stories about ice in the antarctic melting and dropping off in huge sheets being used as proof of warming. I did a quick look and according to "scientists" melting ice in the antarctic is one of the biggest long-term hazards of global warming.

NYT story

So he wasn't lying, but you are.

I love how the NYT and BBC reports on this story completely neglect to mention that the stuck ship is full of climate scientists out to gather global warming evidence. Just a complete oversight I'm sure.

On Twitter, Documenting an Antarctic Journey and a Countdown to a Rescue

Four embedded videos from the expedition team. Including a seven minute introduction to the project.

How often do you encounter a platoon of enemy soldiers in the middle of America?

What's a platoon? Normally about 20-40 or so?

It happens.

Normally it is less than a platoon.

Lifting the Ice Curtain - October 23, 1988

The most alarming report was in October 1982, of five men emerging from the water in wetsuits over olive drab uniforms. Spetsnaz, the elite Soviet Special Forces charged with behind-the-lines reconnaissance and sabotage, often wear olive drab.

The evidence of covert Soviet landings on St. Lawrence is impressive but still circumstantial ....

Spokesmen for the Defense Intelligence Agency deny that any Russians have penetrated our perimeter, but Abner Gologoren, the local coroner and longtime magistrate of Savoonga, told me of a Russian found dead inside the old Air Force listening post at Northeast Cape around 1979. ''The military took charge of the body,'' the magistrate said. Alaska State Trooper A.J. Charlton believes that the Russian was somehow separated from his unit ''and hid out as long as he could, hoping they'd come back for him.''

Why Spetsnaz or other Soviet special forces would want to penetrate the island is another matter. A senior military intelligence source in Washington offered a plausible motive: ''It's like the old American Indian tradition of 'counting coup.' For a young Indian brave to be accepted as a man, he has to get close enough to his opponent, either in battle or in one-on-one combat, to touch him, and then to survive. Evidence, whether it be a wound or a scalp, that you were able to go in there and come back was having 'counted coup.' That's what the Soviet commandos are doing on St. Lawrence. It's a perfect place to do it.''

My source explained the military logic. ''In peacetime, all such organizations seek training opportunities for their special units that approximate the real risks and hazards of wartime,'' he said. ''Going in covertly in ones and twos is the best possible training. The coastline is undefended and indefensible. Practicing out on St. Lawrence is not like flying a U-2 over the Soviet Union and getting shot down. There's risk, but not that dire risk.''

His assessment of what the Russians are up to was the most candid and sensible that I'd heard. Back in Nome, though, yet another theory was propounded to me one night at the Board of Trade - a saloon. Spetsnaz were indeed making covert landings, it went, but part of their mission was to poach ivory artifacts.

Sometimes they aren't all foreign, and they are just waiting for the sign.

Terror Training Camps On American Soil

“We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are America.”

So said the Pakistani Sheikh Muburak Gilani, leader of the jihad terrorist group Jamaat ul-Fuqra. And the way that he and his organization are “dealing with evil at its roots” is to set up jihad terror training camps all over the United States — often under the noses of government and law enforcement officials who are either indifferent or too hamstrung by political correctness to do anything about it.

Sheikh Gilani is no shrinking violet, and Jamaat ul-Fuqra is a force to be reckoned with both in the United States and elsewhere. Journalist Daniel Pearl was on his way to interview Gilani when he was kidnapped and beheaded in 2002. The following year, a member of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, Iyman Faris, pled guilty to plotting to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security included the group among “predicted possi

The convoluted story of Sherlock Holmes ownership was covered in a New Your Times piece a while back when the recent crop of movies came out

Economic growth is picking up nearly everywhere in the EU? I have missed that, can you provide us some sources? France isn't doing well, but calling it the sickman of Europe is rather blunt to me (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/more-notes-on-france-bashing/, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/les-not-so-miserables/, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/more-on-not-so-miserable-france/). Also I don't see the link between the state of our economy and us wanting health/safety... To me the euro currency is to blame.

Economic growth is picking up nearly everywhere in the EU? I have missed that, can you provide us some sources? France isn't doing well, but calling it the sickman of Europe is rather blunt to me (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/more-notes-on-france-bashing/, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/les-not-so-miserables/, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/more-on-not-so-miserable-france/). Also I don't see the link between the state of our economy and us wanting health/safety... To me the euro currency is to blame.

From a the NYT:

Chief Judge Rubén Castillo of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, stated that elements introduced in Holmes stories published after 1923 — such as the fact that Watson played rugby for Blackheath, or had a second wife — remain under copyright in the United States.

I'm pretty sure Sherlock Holmes is gay. I was on tumblr the other day...

does that mean we can't say no shit sherlock anymore

From a the NYT:

Chief Judge Rubén Castillo of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, stated that elements introduced in Holmes stories published after 1923 — such as the fact that Watson played rugby for Blackheath, or had a second wife — remain under copyright in the United States.

I'm pretty sure Sherlock Holmes is gay. I was on tumblr the other day...

You are neither a terrorist nor "terrorist" for reading Slashdot, but real terrorists could read Slashdot if they were so inclined, just like they could read the New York Times or watch CNN.

What is the source of the distorted thinking in the thread above? There seems to be an endless supply of it.

And yes, we know that real terrorists use computers, cell phones, and the internet.

Finding treasures in Bin Laden computers*
Inside Al-Qaeda’s Hard Drive

*Where would Bin Laden store and view his pr0n without computers besides everything else he used them for?

TFA didn't appear to go into the matter of law - does the program violate the 4th or not, and why. The decision must have done so. It's little short of bizarre that a judge went on about matters not of law - how the program is valuable or a "counter punch" for 9/11 or whatever. Surely such talk is all about an end justifying a means. I'm not allowed to break the law just because I've got a valuable end in mind; the government, the same, one would think. If the end justified the means, then, heck , allow cops to search every house at will for evidence of child-molestation.

The NYT article says specifically that he ruled that the 4th does not apply to information given to 3rd parties. TFA notes that he went on about how we give info to 3rd parties all the time so that they can profit from them. What the heck voluntarily and openly giving over information to vendors in return for free services or whatever has to do with the government taking information non-voluntarily and without notification, he doesn't seem to have explained.

So one comes back to the "end justifies the means" parts of his comments. There seems to be capture of the 3rd-branch "regulator" here: he believes the program is saving lives, or something, whereas the judge two weeks ago noted that he was cleared for all possible secrets, yet was shown no cases where they'd averted a crime that would otherwise have occurred. So much for the "54" terrorist plots averted.

Not speculation by Goldman Sachs but a little scam that they figured out how to do.

The paranoid conflate those two into this all-seeing, all-encompassing "They're watching everybody all the time."

The realists know that because of the inexorable march of technology the two are converging. For example, automatic license plate readers which didn't exist when license plates were made a legal requirement are now so widespread that nearly every repoman has one on his dashboard feeding a centralized and permanent database.

... and the Discovery of Gravity.
Happy Grav-Mass!

Why not celebrate comprehensible laws of physics that got your astronaut asses to the damn Moon by honoring Isaac Newton? You know, someone who was actually born on December 25th?

Now you named beer advertising, why not focus a little in something pretty similar, like tobacco advertising? Yes, it pays dividends. It causes addiction, and very cruel death to more people each single year than terrorists, sharks, AIDS, extreme weather, even nazis, ever. But it pays a lot, enough to have something left to push propaganda in movies all along past century, common commercials, and to fund studies that "prove" that they are harmless or tried to hide or deny reports that caused cancer.

Culture has advanced a little, most people acknowledge by now the danger of tobacco use, still the tobacco industry is pretty strong, pretty denialist, and keep attacking countries with anti-tobacco laws.

With that precedent, how much time must we wait till most people acknowledge the global climate change? How much time their efforts to deny the truth and keep screwing things we must stand?

Here's a kid whose father was also an AQ ^w wedding participant:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/the-aftermath-of-drone-strikes-on-a-wedding-convoy-in-yemen/?_r=0

I can't understand why anyone would believe a single word spoken by the the Executive branch, the NSA -- any of them. They're just a bunch self-serving liars who murder people. Why would you believe them at all??

Except that I wouldn't. I don't believe it's right for anyone to castrate anyone against their will, criminal or not.

That's just you. Not everyone is like that. For instance, it appears that a majority of the voters in Oklahoma have no big problem with sterilizing people against their will, since that's exactly what their junior Senator admitted doing regularly, and not only is he not in jail or had his license revoked, but they've reelected him twice.

Except metadata for postal addresses are already available...NTY article on Postal Metadata collection

Less than 100 years ago, the obvious-accepted colors were reversed:

"In 1918, an article in Ladies Home Journal advised: 'The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.' ... In 1927, department stores like Filenes and Marshall Field were still suggesting pink for boys. The current fashion didn’t get established until the 1940s."

http://brooks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/pink-and-blue/

Now think about how many other behaviors which are "obviously" biological may not be.

Female apes, even young ones, tend to be more social while male apes tend to form groups to accomplish something. [emphasis added]

Forming a group is a social activity, regardless of the goal. And as for females being social without intending to "accomplish something", you don't, for example, consider assisting each other in caring for young to be accomplishing something?

Young female apes pay more attention to their elders while young male apes go off to play and screw around.

An antiquated view - no such generalization can be made. Watch a more up-to-date documentary.

if gender is a social/cultural construct, why have almost all of the cultures and civilizations we know about developed along similar gender lines?

How have they developed along gender lines? Males are more likely to be hunters and warriors, and females to raise young children? That's true, but has nothing to do with CS (a subject surprisingly absent from traditional societies). I've never had to use a spear in programming, so let's look at something more relevant, like science. Girls Lead in Science Exam, but Not in the United States is a good example, that shows that the "boys are better at science" notion is culturally determined.

Colleges Cut Men’s Programs to Satisfy Title IX
Sokal's Hoax
Yes, There’s a War on Boys in Schools
What About Our Boys?

The direction this is likely to go is easily predictable.

"I presume you don't live in quake country, or it would be preferable to leave them separated."

Their "foundation" is gross overkill heavy section ten-inch steel I-beam across the ends, resting on railroad gravel. Welding (not to "quake country" structural codes which specify a different wire nowadays) was done with stick (6010 root pass) then E71T-11 .045" flux core wire. Top corner fittings are welded together and the splice strip itself is thicker than the ISO roof skin and adds considerable strength. Since the beams themselves are unanchored, they are free to float if my area ever has a serious quake. I did it that way because if the shop ever settles after I add weight in machine tools (unlikely with railroad gravel) I can jack a corner easily.

  I personally like ISOs, but they are just steel boxes and there is more to building with them than meets the eye. Po' folks in the US didn't do well in "the projects" and even more spartan ISO construction is unlikely to take off for warehousing them. Even for the "homeless" you'll need wiring, insulation, plumbing, sprinkler systems, HVAC and waste disposal, as well as security and surveillance so they don't prey on each other quite so much.

Remember this has all been tried before, sans ISOs, many times!
Technical solutions to social problems with (initially) lavish funding were applied, and the result eventually turned more socially toxic than dispersed poverty.

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/28/nyregion/newark-rips-down-its-projects.html

By all means do an ISO structure for yourself. DIY economics can favor ISO construction and not stacking them slashes cost because you don't need crane rental. DIY homes are owned by people who have a personal buy-in to making them work. Modern insulation panels, spray foam, and so forth make ISOs practical in any climate. Adroit scrounging and human networking can turn up lots of quality material for free. They are fun to work with and complementary steel building kits (galvalume beats the shit out of Corten, but ISOs aren't expected to last decades without refurb as they are designed to be expendable) can integrate and protect them. I have a Steelmaster (there are many companies making the same rolled steel panel designs so shop around) building and would not hesitate to use their kits over ISOs. Two people with scaffold and pneumatic tools can erect one if you aren't in a hurry. See Youtube videos for various methods. I anti-seized the bolts and only had to cut a few when I tore mine down for relocation.

http://www.steelmasterusa.com/industrial/products/container-covers

Do get High Cube ISOs. The standard height version limits air circulation and has little room for vertical storage or lofted furniture options.

Lots of container info and useful parts such as corner clamps and twist locks. You could prefab end beams with weld-in twistlocks offsite then connect your ISOs to them, and to each other at the top with corner clamps if you want the option to demount and move them yet want "earthquake resistance" for your structure:

http://www.tandemloc.com/

Check the gallerys for ideas:

http://www.seabox.com/

Reuters is giving them a full weekend to come up with a PR response before the markets open on Monday.

The big players don't have to wait until Monday. That's what shadow markets are for. Public markets for people without millions.

"Nothing new there, and sadly, the money pit they are doesn't look to change any time soon."

Find the NASA budget in this chart:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html?hp&_r=0

Thought that was exploitive and slave like to use unpaid interns.

States have caught on to this (though probably not fully altruistically since they lose out on taxes from these unpaid workers), but it's nice to see that the federal government doesn't mind exploiting workers for no pay. Why should they pay when the workers will do it for free - besides, this work benefits everyone. Seems like a good move for government - don't pay workers, but give them all of the essentials that they need to live. They could even use a catchy slogan "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?pagewanted=all

One of every four Bridges in the US is broken: http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/08/07/one-of-every-four-u-s-bridges-is-broken/

The US government has a website specifically addressing problems with closed roads: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/trafficinfo/

Millions in the US drink dirty water http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/energy-environment/08water.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Energy poverty. Budget cuts in the US are causing people to freeze to death http://www.politicususa.com/2013/12/20/republican-budget-cuts-literally-causing-people-freeze-death-streets.html

Although there has long been a connection between math and physics, as people dig further into the math they are finding some unexpected things, and ways to better understand, simplify, or extend the equations.

Mathematicians Link Knot Theory to Physics
A Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics

There are a number of seemingly promising developments out there that are sharpening the investigative tools as well as providing interesting new lines of investigation, as well as new data to chew on.

Spooky Connection: Wormholes and the Quantum World
Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist at the Same Time
Schrodinger’s ‘Kitten’? Large-Scale Quantum Entanglement Achieved By Two Physics Labs

String theorists squeeze nine dimensions into three
New work gives credence to theory of universe as a hologram

Now we are developing a growing understanding of the interplay between biology and physics.

Quantum biology: Do weird physics effects abound in nature?

Who knows where things may lead next? Of course people should be careful in performing experiments.

Collapse of the universe is closer than ever before

Because for 60A they use different types. The gauges used at 20A and lower are more prone to failure. So getting a 60A wire and running 20A over it would be safer than getting an appropriately sized wire. Copper doesn't have that problem, and you always use the smallest wire for the job.

The problem with aluminum wiring was not that it couldn't handle the load. While a continuous run of aluminum wire does not present a problem, when that wire is connected to outlets and light switches the connection can deteriorate and become a fire hazard.

The problem was that it "flows" under the pressure of the connecting screws AND it oxidizes when exposed to air. Its a double whammy waiting to happen in every outlet or junction box.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/realestate/19home.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23683-2004Jul2.html

The agency issued a consumer advisory in February 2008 because vehicles were continuing to catch fire and in some cases were burning down garages.

If it's Tesla, it's news.

Those who followed the MANY years of Ford ignition system and later cruise control switch fires might notice a double standard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/automobiles/27FORD.html?_r=0&gwh=376B79D2A392CB21E4879B859797FE30&gwt=pay

"Fordâ(TM)s response to the fires â" first refusing to acknowledge that the switches posed a fire hazard, then conducting four recalls over seven years â" angered fire victims and consumer advocates. It does not hurt their cases that Ford was accused of dragging its feet in other high-profile recalls.

âoeItâ(TM)s a cultural issue within Ford Motor Company,â said Rob Ammons, a Houston lawyer who is suing Ford on behalf of an Iowa man, Earl Mohlis, whose wife, Dolly, died after their home caught fire. The lawsuit claims the manâ(TM)s 1996 Ford F-150 pickup caught fire in the garage. The blaze spread to the house, killing Mrs. Mohlis. âoeItâ(TM)s the same exact pattern,â Mr. Ammons said. âoeYou saw it with the Pinto. You saw it with the ignition fires a decade ago. You saw it with Firestone. And you see it here.â

Snowden has offered to help Brazil investigate US intelligence. Is that the patriotism you were referring to?

Why, yes, Yes it is.
Any spying on Brazil was for economic reasons, probably at the behest of corporations, not due to any threat to the US.

Smug AND clueless. Nice. Nice.

THE NEW CHINA-BRAZIL AXIS
http://prospect.org/article/new-china-brazil-axis
"Last week, an interview at a Brazilian defense website revealed that China and Brazil had come to an agreement regarding the training of Chinese naval personnel on board the Sao Paulo, Brazil's only aircraft carrier. Brazil is one of the only four countries in the world to possess an aircraft carrier capable of launching and recovering conventional aircraft; the others are France, Russia, and the United States."

China Carrier Starts Second Round of Jet Tests
http://news.usni.org/2013/06/19/china-carrier-starts-second-round-of-jet-tests
"The People’s Liberation Army Navy has conducted a second round of jet tests aboard its aircraft carrier with its J-15 carrier-based fighter on Wednesday, according to a report from the Xinhua news agency.
The Chinese are being trained in carrier aviation —the most complicated military aviation operations — by a cadre of Brazilian carrier pilots."

Brazilian Nuclear Cooperation with the People's Republic of China
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/brazilian-nuclear-cooperation-the-peoples-republic-china

Brazil, China build military industry ties
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2009/11/17/Brazil-China-build-military-industry-ties/UPI-86341258474208/

Brazil builds Russian defense ties with missile plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/16/brazil-russia-idUSL1N0I61NC20131016

Brazil’s Iran Diplomacy Worries U.S. Officials
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/15/world/americas/15lula.html?_r=0

Proposed Russian-Cuba-Venezuela Space Cooperation Raises Many Questions
http://jasonpoblete.com/2008/09/22/proposed-russian-cuba-venezuela-space-cooperation-raises-many-questions/

Yep, nooooo reason at all to be interested there.

Yeah and the link you provided was ever so convincing. Oh wait...

Link

This NSA document published at the NYT states explicitly that the NSA is attempting to "Influence policies, standards and specifications" for public key encryption, and given that the project described in that same document is about expanding the NSA's access to data, rather than increasing the security of that data, this proves that the NSA is working to weaken, not enhance, public key crypto. That NSA document doesn't specifically mention DUAL EC DRBG, but this NYT story does say that the Snowden documents somewhere list DUAL EC DRBG as one backdoored technology.

Of course DUAL EC DRBG is only one algorithm. How many other algorithms has NSA contributed to? At this point, they're all suspect, because it's obvious now that the NSA is more worried about decrypting communications it intercepts rather than protecting any communications transmitted. So what academics should be doing is independently vetting all widely used encryption technology, starting with anything the NSA is known to be involved with, even peripherally. That is a tall order, and it used to be tin-foil-hat thinking, but like a police officer caught lying under oath causing decades worth of court cases to be thoroughly redone or thrown out, there is no alternative if we want to be sure that nothing else got through.

This NSA document published at the NYT states explicitly that the NSA is attempting to "Influence policies, standards and specifications" for public key encryption, and given that the project described in that same document is about expanding the NSA's access to data, rather than increasing the security of that data, this proves that the NSA is working to weaken, not enhance, public key crypto. That NSA document doesn't specifically mention DUAL EC DRBG, but this NYT story does say that the Snowden documents somewhere list DUAL EC DRBG as one backdoored technology.

Of course DUAL EC DRBG is only one algorithm. How many other algorithms has NSA contributed to? At this point, they're all suspect, because it's obvious now that the NSA is more worried about decrypting communications it intercepts rather than protecting any communications transmitted. So what academics should be doing is independently vetting all widely used encryption technology, starting with anything the NSA is known to be involved with, even peripherally. That is a tall order, and it used to be tin-foil-hat thinking, but like a police officer caught lying under oath causing decades worth of court cases to be thoroughly redone or thrown out, there is no alternative if we want to be sure that nothing else got through.

No, but they don't seem to have qualms executing corrupt politicians / business people who have done great harm:
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-white-collar-criminals-death-sentence-2013-7
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14197485
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/business/worldbusiness/11execute.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Antibacterial soaps are a frankenstein. Invented as something to cure a sppoky "risk" (like "bacteria") and sold, sold, sold.

Good news: The FDA is planning to restrict antibacterial additives.

How is the miracle of cellulose digestion going to happen exactly? Do we really want to evolve organisms that break down cellulose efficiently? The plant world might not appreciate that.

Well animals do it all the time. Oddly enough, we find the microbes in their gut that help them
and industrialize them. We are currently working with Zebra poop.

I was born in and live in the US and am in my fifties. The anti-union indoctrination is by mass media which are the real groomers of public opinion, not schools or Hollywood.

When I was growing up there was much more pro-union sentiment than today. The shift to the Right by the two US political parties has much to do with the change. It's popular now to blame unions for the collapse of incompetently run businesses such as the old auto and steel industries.

The South especially is anti-union. I live not far from the Enersys plant which closed as a famous act of union busting but is kept in use, IMO to avoid having to clean up the site. The media here are anti-union and they shape public opinion through repetition.

This sort of conduct was and is unfortunately considered acceptable and does not meet with the level of public opposition required to stop it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/national/14union.html?pagewanted=print&position=&_r=0

Read this article

Privacy and the threat to the self

Privacy is about personal autonomy. If you prefer to live your own way, if you want to make your own decisions, it is useful to conceal certain aspects of yourself from those who who would use knowledge of those aspects to subvert your automatic.

Thus, anonymous financial transactions.
Thus, encryption

DRM allows other entities (who do not necessarily even have a cognizable privacy claim) to control how you use books and the like after they have been sold. Particularly invasive DRM may, besides restricting your freedoms to use these items in novel ways may also intrude directly into your sense of privacy.

The GP fails to recognize this important dimension, and equates DRM with privacy preserving uses of encryption technologies. This is a superficial analysis that merits a rebuke.

You're naive and gullible if you believe what the PR mouthpiece says during damage control after-the-fact.

What's makes your gullibility worse is the fact that amazon have done this before.

The Walt Disney Company lobbied extensively on behalf of the Act, which delayed the entry into the public domain of the earliest Mickey Mouse movies, leading to the nickname "The Mickey Mouse Protection Act".

Patents; Congress has extended its protection for Goofy, Gershwin and some moguls of the Internet.

On Oct. 7, a year and a half after the Copyright Term Extension Act was first introduced and after intense lobbying for it from powerful copyright holders like the Walt Disney Company and Time Warner Inc., Congress passed the bill and extended the life of copyright protection for the creators of original works. Since 1976, copyrights have been good for the life of an artist plus 50 years.

Who wants to bet that regardless of what happens, one of two things will happen with the next attack or incident? Either it will be claimed that it doesn't really count for proof of anything except how terrible the "gubermint is", or it will be declared a "false flag" by many of the people posting here regardless of the evidence. There are still 9/11 "truthers" posting on Slashdot today, even if they are just a little more circumspect about it than 10 years ago.

But here you go, have at it. This is from just a couple of days ago. Was NSA involved? Who knows. Will people care? No. Will they declare it a "false flag" of some kind, or a fake? Little doubt.

Wichita Airport Technician Charged With Terrorist Plot - December 13, 2013

Claims that just about every attack are "false flags" would seem to be meaningful proof that certain mental "issues" are transmittable like other social diseases, although in this case it is through "social media."

In a New York Times article, Snowden reacts, stating:

"“I acted on my belief that the N.S.A.’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts. Today, a secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights. It is the first of many.”"

The people like cold fjord who would continually piss themselves over "Mooslem" boogeymen without Big Brother tucking them in at night.

Your views are a bit stunted, you should travel more.

Wichita Airport Technician Charged With Terrorist Plot - December 13, 2013

But don't worry, there'll be plenty more opportunities in the future. With Snowden providing a roadmap of how to avoid detection, more of them will be successful. You'll get bonus points if your travel is outside the US since most of the plots NSA helped to foil were outside the US, and now that may not happen. It will take a couple of years to really see the effect, so relax, you have all the time in the world.